The Reservoir (Part 2)

Meanwhile…

Oh, you wanted to know about Zhao?

Well, he locked himself up in his room, and Miya has been trying hard to get him out of there, hence her absence.

"Zhao? Please… talk to me. You need to get out, come on!"

Miya was no mind reader, nor can she see what's on the other side, but she does feel Zhao's sadness. She could hear him clutching his pillow and burying his face into it, trying to forget yesterday's ordeal.

"Zhao, listen. We need you there… Your cheerful you, we really need you there, or a lot of people are going to die prematurely. We can't let that happen. If we do, we will be overrun sooner."

"Leave me alone!"

Miya almost doubled back from the response. But she sighs, leaning her ear to the door again. "Look… I know you're tired. You've lost someone dear to you… But we all have. Some will, and in the end, they will be gone. You know why you are here. You came for them… to help us! Isn't that what Moskov would want you to do?"

There was no reply. Miya, however, was certain that the walls were cracking. She just had to give him time and pray that he will come out sooner or later, now that the Leviathan is advancing.

"Sigh… fine. You have two choices. Either you sulk on your bed and wait for the Dark Lord to win, or you help us stop him ourselves. If you can't do it for us… Then at least…"

She hesitated to say it, knowing that this certain dialogue was rather overused and common, but it was the right dialogue. "Then at least do it for Moskov. You owe it to him."

Miya turns around and slowly steps away, leaning and slightly looking back at the door, hoping for Yun to come out. "We all owe it to him."

ALERT! INCOMING TRANSMISSION!

(The following transmissi- -s h-i-y c-rr-e- a-d – st-l –i-g re-s-ruc-e- - [DATA REDACTED]. D-str-u-n - -s pu-h-b-e b- in-arc-a-on a-d/- d-a-.

The file was creat- -n -/-/-0 b- an anon- u-er.)

"Okay… okay, guys, lis(CORRUPTED) get caught here."

"(CORRUPTED)t's all real! I swear, thi(CORRUPTED)y is real! I have the p(CORRUPTED)hey exist!"

"I really need to sh(CORRUPTED)ore they catch me. It's the on(CORRUPTED)uth will be revealed."

"O(CORRUPTED) (CORRUPTED)TTA GO!)

"SUSPECT LOCATED! SHOOT TO KILL!"

END OF TRANSMISSION.

In the Reservoir, Argus, Lancelot and Odette wedge their way inside, trying to reach the interior. A large rumble slowly shook the place, and the whole group had to cling to the walls to maintain their footing.

"It is angry," Lancelot notes, gripping his sword. "The weapon worked against the Leviathan. Give or take an hour and a half and it's going to breach the walls. We have to be quick."

The group wriggles out of the crevice they were in and they arrive at a rather wide interior, taking up most of the Reservoir's occupied area. They were slightly above the midsection, and they noticed the smelly fumes being exhaled.

"Is that… oxygen?" Odette asks. "It has a bad odor… but it is oxygen."

The team tries to get a view, each member trying to take up a space in narrow land bridge that led to the other side of the structure. They peered in the bottom and found a massive, fleshy pulsing sphincter, a black pit inside it. Every once in a while, it exhaled light green gas that wafted its way through the top, like smoke from a volcano. Around the sphincter, several eggs and natural birthing pods lined. One of them hatched, and out came a few Morphlings, wet with mucus. The sphincter slowly opened, purple energy glowing within it, and out came a small swarm of Hellbats. They screeched as they shot upwards, and the team had to stay silent and back away so they may remain unnoticed.

"Now that introductions are out of the way, here is the plan." The captain deploys the holographic render of the Reservoir. "We can't just drop bombs inside the sphincter. We need to collapse the structure as well. We need to bury the demons to come using the whole building. Instead of setting charge around the structure, we need to go to the sphincter proper and place the bombs there. The base of the Reservoir has grown weak and is prone to collapse, so the best bet is to bring the blocks down with the sphincter. Bring out your charges."

Each member of the demolition team fished out their Widowmaker depth charges. "Here is the risk. Detonate the charges around the sphincter, and the said building collapses inward, yes? But at least one depth charge needs to reach the sphincter's insides. That way, we can ensure it stops pulling out more demons. There's a chance that the person who throws it in may die here."

"Can't we detonate the charges remotely?" Argus asks.

"We can do it remotely, manually, or set them on a timer, but the first former options won't work inside the sphincter. Signal gets lost in there due to the continuum breaking the connection apart."

"Then I'll do it myself. I have the highest chance of getting out alive. The demons, however, will be more intent to kill everyone else here since I pose a threat too high for them. You need to be careful. Estes can't help us anymore. We're in uncharted territory. We're walking out of here, literally."

"Consider it done," the captain replies. "You all know your roles. Plant the charges at your designated points. Do not attempt to neutralize spawning threats. Make sure you do it within the hour, or we will be late."

The other members nod as some rappel down from the land bridge while others go down via the network of tight caverns and openings.

Argus tells to the duo, "Stay here. I will inspect outside." He unfurls his wings and flies to the opening above, not minding the smelly fumes around him. He lands and perches on the top. Argus sees the mass of demons a few kilometers from their location, black and red dots dancing before his eyes. He couldn't see Alice nor Vexana around, but he was sure that they were absent for now. They wouldn't be guarding the Reservoir. This was their surprise attack. The disruptor was also part of the diversion as well. A working diversion, but a mere distraction nonetheless.

They will most likely fail if they get caught, one way or another.

Argus sighs. Before he could leave, he eyes a small swarm of Ravagers reentering the Reservoir. They weren't on alert, meaning that the team is still undetected, but they were going back inside nonetheless. He dives back inside the structure and tries to find the team captain, which is now reaching the halfway to the base.

"Captain, situation. Nine Ravagers reaching base of the structure."

"Halt," the captain whispers in their comms. The other members stop. Lancelot and Odette were using the networks, crawling and wedging their way out.

"Lance… they're stopping," Odette says. The knight stops, putting Odette behind him and peeks. A few Ravagers enter the base through the pocket space, slowly crawling around. One of them sniffs loudly, as if trying to pick up a scent.

"Stay quiet," the medic says. "Argus… they aren't aware of us?"

"No. I am sure of it. They're here for something else. Don't know what."

The group waits anxiously as the Ravagers slowly poured in, randomly circling and running around the sphincter, tripping over some of the eggs. One Ravager slowly creeped up towards one of its kind, making a soft clicking sound. The other demon made the same clicking sound, but slightly sped up.

"What are they doing?" Lance asked. Well, the answer to his question appeared right in front of the team as one of the Ravagers went on top of the other and-

I will have to stop you right there. I know, right? Who am I in the right mind to put this in the story? But believe me when I say that the files indicate that around a quarter of an hour was wasted by them waiting for the Ravagers to stop… doing whatever they are doing to prevent unnecessary detection.

They were traumatized, yes. I doubt that holy water is enough to purify their eyes.

I hope so, because I've seen it too, and a few minutes after writing this section, I will go to my local church and buy a batch of holy water and spray it all over me like mosquito repellant.

Just kidding, but you get the idea.

"Oh, for goodness sake," the heavy gunner complains, looking away. "That's the most disgusting thing I've ever encountered." He covers his ears as one of the Ravagers began making loud screeches.

"I've seen worse," Argus mumbles. "Lance, are you alright?"

"First, Hayabusa and Kagura, which was acceptable, and now this crap. For the love of… that's the worst thing we can see right now."

"Well…" the captain spoke. "We'll have to wait for this freak show to end before we push forth. Sigh, demolition duty does suck."

Meanwhile…

The Leviathan slowly backed away, shaking its head to recover from the laser's attack. It slowly looks up in front and snorts dismissively, somewhat angered.

"Yeah, we pissed it off," Karrie began. "We just pissed it off."

"As long as Estes and the other Demon Hunters are alive there," Eudora adds. "Just need to buy them more time."

The Leviathan eyes the KMCD that was within the kingdom, its eyes beginning to flare.

"Royce?"

"Yeah, I know."

"It's looking right at us," Delsin nervously says, inputting more commands to initiate a faster charging progress. He looks up at the timer.

Charging… 7%. ETA: 28 minutes.

Royce, surprised, looks up at the monitor. "Goddamnit, around 30 minutes. Hold on for 30 minutes- Delsin?!"

"Royce, stay there! I'll grab a pulse rifle!" Delsin exits the room, nearly skidding on the hallway, trying to find the building's armory

"NO! DELSIN! YOU SLIMY… GET BACK HERE!"

Royce panics as he checks the meters, noticing that they were still low. The Leviathan roared loudly, slowly vibrating the facility. Royce held on to a nearby table to support himself.

In the field, the monstrosity suddenly pushed with such force, the winds slowly driving Bane's ships off course and into each other. They easily recuperated, suffering little to no damage, but the Leviathan moved even faster than before with a steady 35 meters per minute. Suddenly, a large gale force pushed the Leviathan back, making it struggle. It seems that Aurora exerted more power with the Gem, but she will not be able to hold it for too long.

"Argh… this beast is fighting back. We need to push it away!" she says, warning the Royal Guards. A messenger exits the palace in a hurry, trying to reach the main walls, but it is too far.

He notices an ambulance with a PA system. The driver was finished escorting a dead Strider to a hospital.

"Hey… HEY! NEED HELP! I'VE GOTTA…"

The driver of the ambulance sees the tired messenger. "What's wrong?"

"The huge thing… Aurora can't push it, we need more firepower on it! We… We need more guns on that thing!"

The messenger pushes away the driver, exhaling, as he reaches for the ambulance's shotgun seat. In response, the driver enters the vehicle and starts up the engine.

"You need the PA?!" the driver hollers over a loud explosion coming from a mortar.

"WHAT?!"

"DO YOU NEED THE PA?"

"YES! YES! THANK YOU!"

The driver begins to maneuver around bustling streets as the messenger activates the megaphones to shout on it.

"EVERYBODY, WE NEED YOUR HELP! I REPEAT, WE NEED YOUR HELP! WE NEED MORE ARMS TO PUSH BACK THE HORDE OF DEMONS IN THE BATTLEFIELD! I REPEAT, MORE MEN! MORE CREW MEMBERS! WE HAVE MANNED TURRETS AROUND THE PERIMETER FREE FOR USE! WE NEED ALL THE HELP WE CAN GET TO PUSH THE DEMONS AWAY AND PREVENT POTENTIAL BREACHES!"

A few bystanders ran to random directions, possibly their homes. Others already gripped their guns and made a run to the nearest armory, hitching rides on other vehicles. One of Franco's warriors pulled out a horn and blared through it, enticing the attention of more strangers. Some began to race for the main walls, seeking to fire artillery. The ambulance driver squints his eyes to the clouds as he steered and saw black, miniscule dots zooming to the kingdom.

"FLYERS! FLYERS DEAD AHEAD!" he warns to the messenger. The messenger relays the message through the PA to alert the bystanders. A young boy immediately grabbed a rifle and began to shoot at the demons, downing one of them. Even more shooters joined in as the number of demons increased.

The messenger cheered inside the ambulance as even more strangers and civilians began to join the fight, grabbing random things that will serve as their weapons. Like, dude. An old lady came out yelling for blood, raising her umbrella. That's hardcore if you ask me.

"Yeah, baby! That's what I'm talking about! That's what I'm talking about! Come on! COME ON!"

A dozen men have already arrived to the main walls, being sent to the manned turrets. One of them began to shoot at one of the Leviathan's left tendril, seeking to tear it down. More bullets sprayed the monster and it was forced to rear back, using its wings to cover itself. It roars to signal the Spitfires and Hellbats to strike down the defenses.

Multiple commanding officers have already sent their spare troops to stand ground. A Strider stabs an incoming Hellbat and extends her light spear (yes, her) to dismember another. The dismembered Hellbat shrieks at the Strider before being killed by one of Lapu's men.

An Archimedian floats upward towards a Tesla tower and sees a small swarm of Wombats approaching them. As the Tesla tower charged, the caster generates amplifying runes. As the lightning was shot, the whole swarm is electrocuted and burnt to a crisp, but the projectile began to arc even further, surging through the airborne naval ships, miraculously repairing them. As one of Bane's ships launched a volley of cannonballs, they sped twice as fast as they hit the Leviathan, the shrapnel ricocheting to the ground. The beast flaps its wings towards the kingdom, seeking to disorient their formation, but Aurora's winds calmly stabilized their positions as Yi Sun Shin's ships launched a rain of arrows. The Leviathan recklessly uncovered itself, thinking that the arrows were useless.

They were packed with firecrackers.

The arrows burst into colorful sparks of red, yellow and green, and it dazed the beast, worsening its eyesight. One of the firecrackers nearly scorched one of its eyes. The Leviathan wriggles in confusion, using its tentacles to whip down anyone who dared to go near, when in fact, no one has even charged straight at the Leviathan. It shakes its head, trying to fix its sight, only to see Grock jumping straight to the air, the crystal of his tower pointed at the monster's nose.

"DEATH TO LARGE INSECT!"

Grock successfully slams the crystal of his tower into the Leviathan, causing a concussion. The Leviathan recuperates and tries to punish Grock's move, but a charged gush of mystic energy hit its underbelly, searing its skin. The Leviathan grunts to see Gord being aided by a few Archimedians that strengthened his magic. It sought to retaliate with a tentacle, but Grock swipes it off easily. Saber flies around, executing every airborne demon in sight as Alpha did the check-ups on the situation.

"The Leviathan is about to reach halfway! If it does, we'll lose a lot of ground troops. We need to hold on as much as we can, the KMCD still has 20 more minutes needed to charge!"

Alpha jumps off of Beta and dives down, bringing his spear to the ground. He lands forcefully, pushing back a horde of Morphlings going against Roger. The hunter reverts back to his normal self and pulls out his blunderbuss. A Ravager charges at him but he ducks under, proceeding to shoot at the Ravager's stomach. He pulls away the corpse and sees a Wretch stampeding towards him. Roger transforms to a werewolf and somewhat lands on the Wretch's jaws. The demon tries to gnash its teeth to kill Roger, but he began to overcome the biting force, finally snapping the jaws outward to kill the Wretch. He jumps off and turns back to a human, helping Clint and his men eliminate a Reaper.

"More and more boys coming in to the fight!" the cowboy said, chuckling. "Any more surprises up our sleeve?" He sees an army of Goblins running up towards them, their clubs raised. Clint and his companions sidestepped off as Layla appeared behind them. She lets off a huge wave of destructive energy from her cannon, mowing down the Goblins as if she was using a high pressure garden hose. She releases her finger from the trigger and shoots a diving Spitfire.

"I can't believe it… The civilians are joining the fight!"

"Eruditio, too!" Bruno cheers. "Bring it on, Sky Raptors!"

Half a dozen fighter jets appeared in the sky, reaching Mach level speeds. One of them released a heat-seeking missile, and the projectile dove downward, avoiding the Leviathan. It successfully explodes on an enhanced Wretch on impact, killing a few Hellhounds in the blast zone. The others stopped releasing missiles and rockets and began firing their guns at the Leviathan, aiming for its eyes. However, the beast's eyelids were also tough, seemingly impervious to artillery. The Leviathan let out an ear-piercing cry, the soundwaves throwing off the jets. They began to fall to the ground, but they immediately regained equilibrium and hovered again, now assisting the ground. The Leviathan stopped roaring as Grock slammed his fist into its lower jaw. The protodrake leaped off of Grock's head and clawed at the Leviathan, unsuccessful in gouging out its eyes. The Leviathan roared to intimidate the protodrake, but the smaller contender let out a stream of black fire at its mouth, setting it aflame. The monstrosity began making guttural sounds, desperately using the tendrils to swipe off the protodrake. The protodrake dives down and rams through an army of Kastiyans, resisting their projectiles. Hilda runs on the protodrake's back and jumps off of its head, landing her axe to a Kastiyan;s body and slicing it clean.

Her new armor glowed in the light as she charged with a few of her tribesmen, pushing the hordes off.

"15 minutes!"

Hilda looks back and sees Johnson accompanied by Lesley and Harley, shooting down every demon in their path.

"WHAT?!" Lesley exclaimed, shooting down a Hellbat with her rifle. "ALL THAT WORK AND ONLY 15 MINUTES?!" She crouches on Johnson's roof and sees a Wretch tailing them. Chou appears from the side and kicks the running beast, sending it skidding to the rocky ground. He rolls as he lands and sent a flurry of punches to a Goblin, jackhammering the foe until it was a bloody pulp. He uppercuts the Goblin, sending them both sky high. Chou charges his fist and punches the Goblin towards the Wretch's cranium, killing them both. He randomly prepares a punch behind him, and sees Nexos, Aurora's right hand, looking at him with his sword out.

"I was about to kill the Wretch," Nexos pointed out.

"Go get your kills somewhere else, dude!" Chou suggests. He turns to face a horde of Ravagers charging towards them. Nexos pushes Chou off and slashes his sword in the air, casting a large ice wave. The Ravagers get knocked off their feet and slipped, trying to recover. Chou runs to finish them off but Ruby was already behind the Ravagers, slashing at them with her huge scythe. The last Ravager grabbed her skirt, but Ruby slashes upwards, the blade of the scythe lodged through the Ravager's skull. She struggles to pull it out, a pool of blood slowly forming on her feet.

"Did the work for you. Should be thankful!" Ruby sprints off to the opposite direction, seeking to aid Kagura.

"Did you know that she sliced me in half from here?" Nexos told Chou, motioning his groin. "That hurt."

"Yeah, well, she has a huge scythe, so perks."

Meanwhile…

"It's getting a bit shaky here," Tuk said, his voice slightly echoing around within the Leviathan. "Didn't expect it to be this shaky."

"Estes, something up outside?" Victor asks, scratching his back. "Dunno, feels like more guns just focused on this thing."

"The civilians on the ground are beginning to fight back," the king answers. "Their maximizing the output of their weapons, trying to suppress the Leviathan's movement. We don't have a lot of time."

The group slowly moved around the murky interior, the Leviathan's breathing slowly resonating around them. Mucus and flesh covered the walls, making the floor slippery. It wasn't long before they met a huge wall of flesh blocking their way.

"This may be as far as the weapon could've reached," Yinsen hypothesized. "But judging from the structure, its tougher than what we walked on. The heart may be right there on the other side. Say, we cut a hole?"

"Wait… there's a small crevice leading out to the other side," Victor notices, pointing at the small fleshy crack. It expanded and retracted in a slow rhythm. "Eugh. Disgusting."

"It's our only way. We need to move," Pique motions. Estes sprinted towards the crevice with the other Demon Hunters. He casts a rune, stopping the crack's somewhat respiratory movement. One by one, the Demon Hunters slid inside the crack, going through the tight space. Yinsen had to close his eyes to stop visualizing rather disgusting thoughts. He really did think he was going to be crushed by the wall of flesh. Luckily, that didn't happen, because he reached the other end and breathed easily. Estes entered last and exited last, deactivating the rune. The group couldn't see in the new space they were in, and no one dared move.

"Where are we?" Tuk asked. "It's like we are out in the open…"

Estes walked in front, casting illumination runes and loading them up on his wrist. "We are."

He launches the runes in multiple directions. Yinsen was astounded that two of the symbols were about 100 meters away from them/ Estes snaps his fingers and the runes shone, showing where they were.

Okay, imagine you're this small cell, okay? And you activate God Mode and look around where you are at, like Creative Mode in MineCraft. Just imagine over looking this wide landscape with the mountains and the sun and all that, no limit to what you are seeing.

And imagine that landscape being the interior of the Leviathan, and you see all of these monstrous organs moving around and about, giving it life. Imagine the esophagus doing peristalsis, the lungs slowly expanding and shrinking. Imagine the heart slowly beating like a large drum, vibrating the ground. Imagine the digestive system, the blood vessels and all of that, forming a different landscape only a few will ever witness, whether they be those that wish to kill the monstrosity, or ended up being its snack.

"Holy… this place is huge," Pique said in awe. "The heart's there. There are a few flesh platforms we can walk and jump on."

"We'll waste time trying to scale, I'll conjure some," Estes volunteers. He flicks his wrists, throwing multicolored runes that slowly transformed into light platforms. Victor stepped on one and pushed forth with the other platforms. The other Demon Hunters did the same as Estes easily floated towards the circular platform encompassing the heart. It took a minute for the other Demon Hunters to traverse. Tuk sweated nervously and slipped, nearly falling to God-knows-where.

"Ah, jeez! Oh… that's not good."

Yinsen raced to Tuk. "Goddamnit, get up! Watch your step, okay? Relax."

"Yeah… Yeah, kid. I know." Tuk brushed off imaginary dust from his pants and reached the circular platform. They were literally next to the heart, but its heartbeat didn't send vibrations to the platform they were standing on.

"We can't cut down the heart," Estes said. "Try hurting it physically, and the whole anatomy will release antibodies to exterminate us. As I begin my enchantments, they will come."

"Where do they crawl from?" Victor asked, bringing out his shotgun.

"They will crawl on the blood vessels around here and travel here on foot or on the air. I will need all the cover I can get to finish the work, and it will take a long while."

Yinsen was still confused concerning what Estes would actually do. "What you going to do?"

"Simple. Make the Leviathan suffer from cardiac arrest." Estes turns his back towards the Hunters. "Prepare what you need to prepare. I will commence. The Leviathan has reached halfway, and I do not intend to endanger the Land of Dawn because of our lack of punctuality." He casts the first rune and begins chanting softly. Estes puts his palm on the heart of the Leviathan, searing a symbol on it, and initiating the spell.

On the outside, the Leviathan doesn't feel anything (except the bombardment of literally everything that is trying to shed off its carapace), but inside? The antibodies are now loose.

Yes, antibodies. You know, those cells that… Anyway, those are literal demons that come in swarms. They are irregularly shaped, but they mostly have insect wings and hairy, spiky legs, like an insect's. They aren't individually resilient, but their strength is based on their numbers, akin to the Morphlings.

But the Hunters still haven't seen one yet.

"Estes needs around half an hour to finish the job. After that, we just have to use whatever we can to make sure it dies," Victor says. "Any of y'all has something to say?"

Horst raises his hand. "Yes, I do. Victor, that's the best case scenario. What if Estes cannot stop this thing? The KMCD can't even bring this down, you know that!"

"I have faith on the man. He's trying, and this is the best chance we have," Pique defends. "And besides- Wait… what's that chirping sound?"

The Hunters turned around and aimed their weapons, trying to find the source of the sound. Coincidentally, the sound of the working organs slowly diminished.

"Argh, still can't see good. Activate your flashlights," Yinsen commands. The Hunters flip the switches of their flashlights on their pockets, illuminating their surroundings. They spot an antibody.

It was dark green in color, and resembled a praying mantis, but its body was littered with hundreds of blue eyes, blinking at random intervals. Its legs didn't possess eyes, but they constantly tapped the ground. The head of the demon had two pairs of antennae, and it had three snapping mandibles. Its gray wings resembled that of a fly, but they were completely opaque than translucent. The antibody slowly reared up, making the annoying chirping sound. Tess, one of the Demon Hunters, charged at the demon and beheaded it using her machete. She kicked the body off, and it fell down to the darkness.

"That's creepy," she said, wiping the blood off of her weapon. "Seriously, just one?"

Estes stopped chanting, feeling multiple presences around him. "All of you. Don't be fooled. They've come."

"Um, where?" Tuk contradicts, peering down. "We haven't- OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD!"

"Tuk?" Victor asks, rushing to the fellow Hunter that backed up against the heart. "What's wrong?"

Yinsen looks down and was shocked. "Hope you guys have a flamethrower…"

"I do!" Pique says. "Why?" He looks down and sees hundreds of antibodies slowly crawling their way up through a blood vessel, trying to scale towards the platform they were in. Estes snaps his fingers again to strengthen the runes, and they see multitudes of them crawling around the inner walls of the Leviathan, some already flying towards them, snapping with their mandibles.

They were surrounded.

Yinsen brings out his own flamethrower, reloading the air in a hurry. "Victor?!"

"KILL THEM ALL WITH FIRE, NOW! LIGHT THEM UP!"

I gotta say, if you were in their situation, that's exactly what you would shout at to your local government.

Meanwhile…

"Delsin, many bogies are coming out to get in here!" Royce shouted, adjusting the controls of his console. "Where is that prick when I need him?!"

The double doors burst open, and Delsin arrived with two pulse rifles in his hands and half a dozen grenades hung on his belt.

"Royce, how much time left?"

"Around 7 minutes. The laser will still be straight even with the flyers around, but we need to clear them off before they tear up the KMCD."

Delsin nods in agreement. "Sounds about right, bro. I already warned the nearby local defenses to cover us. The Sky Raptors are giving us more air to breathe, so as long as the KMCD is fine, we are good."

Suddenly, an emergency alarm blared. The automated speaker announced, "Warning. Hostiles have breached the main walls. This is not a drill."

"Crap, they got in?!" Royce exclaimed. "Did they climb up the walls?"

"They're just trying to take down this thing, they're not minding anything else, not even the goddamned titan!" Delsin yelled. "Royce, take the rifles. The one who's firing needs cover fire. The demons are going to breach the doors."

"I'll set up a barricade, you watch the damn timer!"

"ON IT, ROYCE! YOU MAKE IT QUICK BEFORE THEY GET YOU!"

Royce races and shoves the gun locker adjacent to the entrance, knocking it down with a loud BANG! He then proceeds to grip on a nearby desk and pull it towards him, dragging it and lifting it above the cabinet.

"Heavy as a mother… DELSIN! WHERE ARE THE PLANKS?!"

"WE DON'T HAVE PLANKS! 5 MINUTES!" Delsin sees a Spitfire trying to divebomb through the glass dome, but luckily, it was enchanted, so the kamikaze move only gave the glass a small crack. A few more Spitfires came into view, trying to melt down the dome with their fiery breath, but many Sharpshooters have already responded, nicking them down like it was hunting season.

"THEN WHERE IS THE CHAIN?"

"INSIDE THE LOCKER!"

Royce looks back at the barricade. The table was above the knocked down gun locker. "YOU SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME THAT EARLIER GODDAMNIT!"

"THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE ASKED EARLIER ROYCE USE YOUR HEAD-"

Delsin was interrupted by the soft rumbling of the ground. "W-What was that?"

"I don't know, let me check." Royce grabbed his walkie-talkie. "HEY! What's going on down there?!"

"STAMPEDE! STAMPEDE! GROUND HOSTILES BREACHING THE WALLS!"

"Great. Really effin' great," Royce said, angrily removing the desk. "REALLY EFFING GREAT!"

"What?" Delsin asked.

"They just broke through the walls. No doubt they're coming in here!" Royce forcibly opens the locker and finds the chain. He grabs them and wraps them around the handles of the twin doors, locking them inside. "There, that will buy us some time. How many more minutes?!"

"TWO! TWO!" Delsin slowly backs away as the Hellbats began to slam themselves towards the dome, slowly making even more cracks. "I DON'T KNOW HOW LONG THE DOME WILL LAST!"

A large shadow loomed over the demons, and the cerulean protodrake exhales black fire on the Hellbats, coating the glass dome as well. The dome suddenly repairs itself, the cracks shrinking until they disappeared. The protodrake carefully supports itself on the dome, roaring to intimidate the demons away.

"No! Goddamnit, why is this thing in front?!" Delsin exclaims. "We need a clear shot!"

What Delsin didn't know was that a large swarm of Spitfires and Wombats began to coalesce, seemingly diving towards the glass dome. The protodrake's eyes glared with intense focus as its neck began to glow with blue energy. It slowly inhaled as the swarm neared.

Delsin began to frantically yell at himself. "10 SECONDS GODDAMNIT YOU SCALY BASTARD GET OUT OF THE WAY!"

As soon as the last word left his lips, the protodrake exhaled as it swung its head around, spraying black fire around and incinerating the Wombats. It leaps with such force and extends its wings like a turbine, shoving off the burnt corpses and the other survivors. As the KMCD was about to fire, the protodrake leaps down and lands its jaws on an enhanced Wretch that was about to ram through a crowd, chewing on it and ripping off its head clean off the shoulders, spine and all.

The KMCD's beam pushes through the air, zooming towards the Leviathan. Once again, the Leviathan tries to cover itself with its wings, but they burn on contact, forcing the monstrosity to take the laser's full force. The beam hits its left underbelly, completely severing one of the large tendrils. The appendage slowly falls to the ground and freezes, breaking into multiple splinters. The Leviathan tries to back away, flapping its wings towards the kingdom, but Aurora overcomes the winds, preventing the airborne ships to capsize. The KMCD dies down, and the Leviathan receives a large open gash below it, blood pouring out and spilling towards the demons.

Lesley aims with his sniper rifle and sees a few insect-like corpses falling out of the gash as well, apparently deceased. "Johnson, you seeing this?"

"The Leviathan's antibodies!" Johnson says. "Estes is performing the spell as we speak! Give them 15 more minutes and the KMCD's last shot is all we need!"

Meanwhile, the whole facility was beginning to falter as the KMCD's previous activation sparked up the consoles. Delsin coughs, trying to wipe off the smoke around him. "Augh, Royce?!"

"Delsin!" Royce called out, bringing the pulse rifles with him. "Did we hit it?"

"Yeah, yeah, left a nasty cut. We still need to aim for the head in the last shot. All we've been doing is buying Estes some time."

"The systems are lighting up, we need to know how much time we need for the final shot," Royce suggests. "I think we still need to wait for 30 minutes, but the demons… they're going to get in here by the minute!"

"May the Lords help us all," Delsin mutters, analyzing the conditions of the disruptor. If they fire the weapon one more time, the whole building they are in will collapse. The two will die in there. "C'mon, we need all the help we can get."

Meanwhile…

"Bless my beard, this is too much!" Franco breathes out, clinging to the ship. "It's moving around too much!"

Apparently, a few of the ships had to go off course now that the Leviathan is now about to close the distance between them.

"I think we're just pissing the bastard even more!" Bane says to Franco, clutching the wheel. "Wanna get down?!"

"NO! Not yet, for the love of Odin! We can still do some good crap here!" Franco shouts over the launching of the cannonballs to the Leviathan's head, trying to throw off its focus.

"Really? Is this how you wanna get shot?" Bane asks, fixing the ship's position. "Don't be thick-headed, even I don't wanna be in the air!"

A large tentacle from the Leviathan's right side stretches out towards the ship, trying to bring it down, but Grock swats it off with his huge tower. However, the tentacle begins to wrap itself around Grock's arm, trying to drag the titan with it.

"AGH! HUGE INSECT HAS ARM! GROCK HATES HUGE INSECT!" The titan groans, using his free arm to rip the tentacle off. To prevent complications, the Leviathan shifts its body, using more momentum to throw Grock off the side. The titan receives a few seconds of air time before finally knocking down in the ground, shaking the earth. Both the army and the demons lost footing because of the fall. A pack of Hellhounds and Ravagers began to crawl on Grock, using their claws and teeth to rip off bits of the titan, but all they could do was leave scratches. Either way, it left the titan preoccupied, providing no support for the other sections of the army.

"Clear off the demons latching on Grock!" Hylos says, already charging through with Clint on his back, using his rifle. "The Leviathan is pushing too fast!"

"C'mon, you little geezers, come on!" Clint taunts, throwing sand grenades at a Wretch and shooting them, forcing the sand to sink into the beast's body. Hylos runs towards the Wretch as Clint yells, emptying the magazine of his rifle into the Wretch's skull. Clint stands up as Hylos ducks beneath the Wretch and shockingly jumps, pushing the Wretch's body upward with his arms. Clint jumps off of the centaur and walks on the midair Wretch, shooting more bullets at the Goblins that were jumping up towards him. He lands on Hylos' back as the two resume racing towards Grock.

Alpha arrives, landing on the lying titan and wiping off the demons around him. Beta shoots down the other demons coming towards the cyborg as Alpha spins around, driving the enemies off before charging at a Reaper, stabbing it completely. Unfortunately, a Hellhound jumps on Alpha, impeding his assault. Even more began to jump on the cyborg, but Grock forcibly rises, sending them plummeting to the ground. Grock swipes off a large horde of Ravagers, but some latched onto his arm. He tries to shake it off, stomping on other demons in the process, but more began to cling to his body and he was forced down again. A Tesla tower begins to charge to try and clear them off, but a Spitfire kamikazes through it, destroying the sentry. The collision made a chain reaction within before finally exploding, the splinters flying off to the avenues and into the infrastructure.

"Goddamnit, it's too much!" Alucard heaves, throwing a body of a Hellhound towards a Wretch before teleporting toward it, cutting off the Wretch's lower jaw and stabbing the Wretch's head through the upper jaw. "We need to clear! We need to clear!" He doesn't notice a Shadowbringer snarling towards him, sinking its teeth into his demonic arm. Alucard grunts, but apparently the Shadowbringer retreats, its teeth broken. The hunter was astonished to see that his arm didn't receive a scratch. He shrugs before reuniting with Tigreal.

"Grock is being overrun. We won't stand a chance!" the knight says, stabbing a Ravager over and over as it tried to flail its body at him. "The airborne is focusing on the sentries in the kingdom!"

"The protodrake?!" Alucard asks. "Where is it?"

"I haven't seen it, it was in the air!" Irithel answers back, riding on Leo. The smilodon pounces on a Reaper that was clawing at Hilda. Irithel empties her crossbow, killing the demon. "I… damn, running out of arrows."

In the far ends of the walls, more demons began to pour into the underground, finally reaching into the kingdom. The civilians on standby, however, were already prepared as they shot down the horde. A Bastion blocks one of the entrances, pushing off the Shadowbringers as a Strider swipes them around. Suddenly, a Wretch bursts through, trampling on the Strider and Bastion. An Archimedian traps the Wretch as one of Lapu's tribesmen proceeded to slash and stab on its legs, immobilizing it.

"Running out of time to protect the weapon!" the Archimedian says. She spots one of the manned turrets on the wall turning towards the Wretch, finally neutralizing the enemy before the gunner gets mauled by a Hellbat. "We need to fall back! All of you! Fall back!"

The civilians retreated into the next boundary, some still shooting down a few more demons. They began expending their ammunition, but the more they kill, the more enter.

Meanwhile, Rafaela blinds a group of Stalkers with a flash of bright light. Natalia sneaks up behind them and tears them to ribbons, sprinting off towards Tigreal. Suddenly, a Ravager charges into her, using its arms to pin her to the ground. It frantically strikes at her but its claws were locked with Natalia's. The assassin struggles to shake it off and finds Saber rushing towards them. She kicks the demon into the air as Saber's swords finish it off.

The cyborg beckons the other heroes. "All of you, on me! Push them back! No matter what, push them back!" Saber eyes huge ice boulders materializing from thin air, falling towards the swarms. They land on the new wave of demons before being followed by a volley of mortar shells and artillery from the Sky Raptors. The heroes charge towards the smoke expecting the demons recuperating, but a line of Wretches surprise them, knocking a few down. Cyclops shakes his head, cosmic projectiles around him as Balmond pushes the mage off before facing a Wretch.

"More and more are coming. We cannot stop this," the orc grunts, chopping down the Wretch's legs, barely missing its jaws. "We cannot push them more!"

"We need to try!" Bruno motivates. "20 more minutes on the KMCD!"

"That's not enough!" Akai complains, jumping out to get behind. "Frogger here is worried! He says we will be dead if we don't retreat!"

"If we retreat, we lose!" Kagura points out. "The formation is already losing ground! Aurora is most definitely wearing out!"

"Goddamnit," Hayabusa grumbles. "Blade's going dull, can't clean… Shadow Kill!" The ninja disappears through the shadows, cutting down the Morphlings appearing behind the Wretches. He teleports away and disappears again, driving the Wretches off with a flurry of slashes. Suddenly, an enhanced Wretch stops, eyeing the movement of the ninja. It begins to speed up towards one of its brethren, preparing to swipe with its arm. Minotaur sees this.

"HAYABUSA! STOP!" the hybrid bellows, using all fours to race towards the shadow. The Wretch roars to attack, and Minotaur reaches just in time to take its full force, sending both Hayabusa and him to the ground.

The Wretch begins to loom around the heroes with many more of its kind, snarling at them. Alucard begins to use his right arm, but senses a surge of energy going towards them. His mind rang.

"HOLD ON! HOLD OOOOONNNN! WE'RE COMIIIING!"

The heroes run backwards as they bait the beasts. Gossen throws his dagger towards a Spitfire and dashes towards it, escaping faster. He sees Johnson and Zhao racing through, the spearman apparently on fire. Johnson crashes into the enhanced Wretch, and Miya jumps off, shooting arrows in midair.

"TOOK YOU LONG ENOUGH!" Karina scolds. "WE ARE DYING OUT HERE!"

Miya didn't say a word as she kept nocking arrows and making them fly, hitting more demons. Zhao runs from behind her, his armor slowly transforming.

"COME GET SOME!" Zhao yells as he bursts through the enhanced Wretch like a drill. He comes out from the other end and slashes sideward, releasing an arc of fire around the demons, forcing them back. The heroes began to advance as Zhao spun his spear around, the tongues of fire being shot around the demons while incinerating a few. A Shadowbringer leaps and Zhao easily stabs it in the air, then throws his spear on the proximity of the Morphlings. The weapon hits the ground and incinerates a conical area in front of it as Zhao picks it up and begins his assault again.

"The power of the Dragon within Zhao," Gatotkaca begins. "I've never seen such awe-inspiring beauty." He pounds his fists before leaping. He yells as he pounds down on another Wretch. Gatotkaca lifts it up with his arms and furiously throws it to a group of Reapers, knocking them down like bowling pins. "C'mon, a little more time!"

Freya dives from the sky and crashes through the Hellhounds. As she was carried away by the momentum, she puts her shield below her and raises her sword, spinning around as she scrambled the enemies that tried to get close to her. Eudora unleashes a lightning bolt from her hands, hastily arcing around the demons and stunning them. The heroes gained the upper hand as they pushed them off in desperation.

The ships above kept firing at the Leviathan, distracting it. The monstrosity has already wiped nearly 50% of the airborne troops, but it was considerably slowed.

"C'mon, sack of organs!" Bane mutters in his mouth. "Done with your stinkin'! Why won't you just die already?!"

The Sky Raptors appeared with the ships, concentrating their fire. The assault was now focused on the Leviathan's head, most especially its remaining eyes. The beast covers itself with its wings and ducks its head to cover itself. It then spots the heroes easily fighting off the ground forces with the help of Miya and Zhao. The beast stops in the air.

"Stay still," Franco whispers. "Goddamnit, stay still for once!" The ships and the jets stop firing, the Leviathan's eyes trained on them. The monster stopped, and they were wondering why. Then Yi Sun Shin sees one of its tentacles raised, preparing to attack.

The ships immediately retreated in haste, thinking that the Leviathan would disable them instantly once they get hit. Suddenly, the tentacle slams downward, striking the ground near the army.

"NO!" Fanny shouts. "GUYS, GET OUT OF THERE NOW!"

Gord sees another one of the Leviathan's left tendrils rearing as well, and the group falls back as it strikes downward again. The Leviathan's eyes were trained on the heroes below, and its body began to push forward again, catching the airborne troops unawares. A group of Spitfires clung to one of the Sky Raptors and ripped off one of its engines, the debris falling towards Lesley. Johnson goes up front and blocks the junk with his shield, but the momentum forces both him and the sniper backward, and in a desperate attempt, Johnson grabs Lesley and transforms into a car.

"Crap, the jets need to stay off!" Johnson exclaims. "Come on, stay back!"

Zhao was the one to retreat last, and the stronger horde of demons followed him, a few incinerating from his flaming trail. Gossen threw more daggers, keeping the demons back, but he was forced to grab onto Saber as he nearly gets caught by one of the Wretch's eager hands. In the distance, Grock has risen, still unscathed, and he yells in frustration as he jumps, seeking to slam his tower in the Leviathan's side. Suddenly, the tentacles grabbed him by the arms. The monster's body shook around, putting Grock in a daze before finally throwing him away…

Before finally throwing him away towards the army.

"OH, BULLOCKS!" Franco exclaimed, looking down. "By the gods, that thing nearly threw Grock towards the army! The formation is broken!"

"Turn back! Don't stop firing!" Bane orders, pointing his sword at the Leviathan. The beast growls in arrogance as it began pushing forward. One of the Sky Raptors lost control due to the demons around it, and it hits the Leviathan's carapace, exploding. "Lords, save us."

The other heroes on the ground lost their footing due to Grock's hard landing. The dust and smoke around slowly picked up and cleared as the demons were closing the distance between them.

"Argh, my chest hurts," Lolita groans, trying to stand. She fails as she clutches her side, which was bleeding. "I think… We can still go on…"

"No… we're done for," Lapu-Lapu wheezes, wafting the dust away from him. His leg was injured and his arms ached. "How much more time?"

"Fifteen…" a voice says. Layla was supported by Clint as she received a concussion from her fall. "We can't survive fifteen."

Alucard pants, looking at the horde coming towards them. In less than a minute, they'd be toast. He feels the growth slowly creeping up towards his chest. In desperation, Alucard outstretches his hand and recalls the greatsword back to him, powering him up.

"Alucard, don't!" Rafaela warns, frantically casting healing spells around the group. The army struggles to fix their formation as the horde closes in. "You can't!"

"No one can help us, and this is the only way!" Alucard replies. "This is the… only way."

Hayabusa forces himself to stand, stancing himself with his blade. "Doesn't matter if half are out cold here. At least I can still fight…"

"C'mon," Zhao urges, Miya behind him. His fiery aura was dying out and his armor returned to normal. "This is too early…"

Saber hovers above them as the other heroes stood up, tired or injured. The Leviathan was closing in and as soon as the KMCD is ready to fire, it would have already breached the walls. Half of the airborne ships were taken down already, and no Sky Raptor was in sight. The kingdom was slowly giving in to the mishap, groups of demons already entering the underground systems.

"No place to die," Alucard mutters as the power of the greatsword slowly overcame him. "NO PLACE TO DIE!"

He reared to prepare for his fission wave, his weapon glowing with sinister maroon. Then suddenly, a large ray of light appeared in front of them, and inside it was a large downward kinetic force. Something was being recalled. Someone was being recalled.

Alucard backed down in astonishment as the ray of light slowly dissipates, revealing a familiar bronze figure right in front of the group.

"RAAAAHHHHHHH! LEAVE NOW, INTRUDERS!"

Bruno realized what was happening.

"YEEEEEEESSSSSSS!"

Uranus charges up, yellow energy erupting inside him as he strikes a Wretch with his palm, sending its body skidding towards the other demons. In a flash, more rays of light began to appear around the vicinity, some even reaching the kingdom. Out of them, gold and brass warriors emerged with electrified blades and white wings, clashing with the demons with swift strikes. Uranus smacks a Reaper down before punching away the Ravagers pouncing at him. More and more demons began to crowd the guardian, but he remains unfazed, the dents appearing on his body immediately recuperating and being undone. As he slammed the last Ravager to the ground, he was uninjured.

"Are all of you alright?!" he calls out, worried. "I'm sorry it took us too long!"

The heroes stood up in confidence and sides with Uranus as another wave of demons began emerging. The last ray of light appears next to Uranus, and out came Kaja, holding his whip.

"We will not let you die here!" the Nazar king announces. "Screw the Lords! We shall do what is necessary. NAZAR!"

By the dozen, the Nazar slowly herded around, bringing out their blades.

Kaja looks behind the others. "All of you! Do what you must! Defend the Land of Dawn! FOR THE LIGHT!"

"FOR THE LIGHT!"

Johnson immediately transforms, escorting Cyclops, Harley and Nana inside. Minotaur shrugs off his wounds and roars, intimidating the demons that were far off in the distance. Everyone else prepared their weapons again as they see their injuries miraculously healing. It turns out Alucard hasn't let go of his sword just yet.

"How many are there, Kaja? Your men?"

"All of them, boy. Consider this our thank you."

"For what?"

"For reminding us what's worth the most." Kaja strikes his whip to the ground, arcs of lightning sparking around. "Uranus, let us commence!"

The guardian raises his fist into the air before finally charging, glowing discs spinning around him. He speeds up as the enemies grew in number, snarling at cawing back at them.

Grock stands up and bellows. "ALL OF THESE DEMONS WILL GET BASHED! FOR MY PEOPLE!" He charges straight towards the Leviathan and slams his tower to its face, forcing the Leviathan to rear up and back away.

Kaja gathers his Nazar as they charge their weapons. The other heroes gained a new hope as they ran straight to their enemy without fear.

The Nazar King zooms ahead of Uranus, preparing his whip. "There is nowhere for all of you to run… NOWHERE LEFT TO HIDE!" As he finished his threat, he snags the nearest Wretch with his whip, a ball of lightning encasing the demon, before throwing it to his warriors for them to kill it in midair.